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Wednesday, 25 June 2014

In the land of the half-lion, half-fish mutant, there's the half-cake, half-kueh: pandan kaya quake.

kueh + cake = kuake = quake

Dig?

Using kueh as an icing makes perfect sense when you live in the tropics. There's no need to worry about the icing melting even when there's a heat wave. El Niño? Bring it on! No aircon? No problem!
The cake part of pandan kaya cake is quite straightforward. It's a sponge cake made with the separated egg method. If you follow the recipe and you know how to whisk egg whites to firm peak stage, your cake will be fluffy, moist and fragrant.

If you don't know what the hell firm peak stage is and you need instructions on how to follow instructions, please refer to my posts, Cake FAQ and Cake Dos and Don'ts.

The kaya part of pandan kaya cake is made with pandan juice, as well as pandan paste to boost the colour. There's coconut milk as well, pandan's best friend. These two are real buddies, you know? (Of course you do.) The two combined would make (almost) anything sweet taste good.

Turning pandan leaves into pulp is easy when you use a food processor or blender instead of mortar and pestle. (You knew that, of course.)

How to squeeze the hell outta pulverized pandan leaves, so that you get every drop of juice possible?

The hard way: with your bare hands. The easy way: with a potato ricer. (You know Archimedes' Law of the Lever . . . don't you?)

Besides coconut milk and pandan juice, there's also butter in cake kaya. The fat is absolutely necessary. It hides the floury taste of hun kwee flour.

Unlike its cousin that's spread on bread, cake kaya is made without eggs. Bread kaya is set with eggs but cake kaya is set with hun kwee flour (a starch made from mung beans) and agar-agar powder.

Hun kwee flour is available at most supermarts if you live where I live. If you're in the western/southern hemisphere, try Asia grocery stores. In the US, Amazon.com can deliver a pack to your doorstep.

Pandan kaya cake may be assembled upside down. IOW, you start with a layer of kaya and finish with a layer of cake on top. After the kaya is set, the cake is flipped right way up.

I prefer to assemble my cake right way up, starting with a layer of cake and finishing with a layer of kaya.

If you do it my way, make sure the kaya isn't too thin when you pour it on the first cake layer. If it's watery, it'll seep underneath the cake. What's the right consistency? Kind of like thick but pourable cream.

Kaya that's too thick is also problematic. If it's not thin enough to flow smoothly, the layers formed won't be even. How do you stop the kaya from becoming too thick?

If you look at the written recipe below, you'll find it's rather long. That's because describing the process in detail requires a lot of words. Well, 1,000 words = 1 picture, right? If you watch the video, the recipe doesn't look too daunting. In fact, if you enjoy baking, it looks exactly like the kind of thing you'd want to do this weekend.

Pandan Layer CakeSingaporean pandan kaya cake has an identical twin in Malaysia called pandan layer cake. How to tell the twins apart? The kaya in the Malaysian cake is like agar-agar/jelly. The Singaporean version, OTOH, is like kueh.

To make pandan layer cake, use 3/4-1 tsp of agar-agar powder instead of 1/2 tsp. More agar-agar powder makes the kaya set quickly, so you must be quick when you're assembling the cake or the kaya layers won't be smooth.

15. To assemble cake, place what was top part of cake in cake pan, cut side up. Pour 140 g kaya into pan. Tilt pan from side to side and swirl kaya to form even layer. Wait till kaya layer thickens slightly, about 60 seconds (less if it's cold where you are). Place what wasmiddle part of cake on kaya layer. Make kaya layer as before. Wait 30 seconds or so. Top with what was bottom part of cake, cut side up. Make kaya layer as before.

Hi KT, I'm a fan of your site/recipe and I'm about to try to make this beautiful cake. However, I can't find the same brand of agar agar powder in Canada. Your recipe calls for 300 g water with 1/2 tsp white agar-agar powder. The one I can find here, according to their instruction, dissolve the entire bag of 170 g (looks about 3 to 3.5 Tbsp) in only 6 cups water (~1500 g). I'm not sure if it would be different from diff brand? If you could kindly advise if the brand you use has the same amount of water vs. powder.. I'm afraid if I only use 1/2 tsp for 300g water + 40g pandan juice w/ my agar agar powder, it may not set at all. Your advise is much appreciated!.

I was very nervous attempting the chiffon cake part of this recipe as I've had so many bad experiences with chiffon cakes. But KT is right, follow her recipes to a T and you will yield perfection. My chiffon had no cracks on top and was cottony soft. Thanks for generously sharing your expert tips and recipes with us KT.

My moulds are made with aluminium foil, which reflects heat. If yours are aluminium, they'd absorb more heat and if they're black, even more, so your tarts burn. Solution: place a baking tray in the bottom of your oven when the pastry is about 90% done.

Hi KT, thanks very much for sharing your recipes. I have tried the chocolate sponge recipe and it has yielded very nice results. One question on cake pan substitution. I typically use an 8" (20cm) round tin for my baking. In the comments section of the chocolate sponge, a reader had asked for tin conversion tips and the advice given was to double the ingredients for a 20cm round tin. That's what I have done both times I have baked the chocolate sponge and it has worked well.

I am about to try this pandan kaya cake recipe so I've gone to the FAQ just to make sure I should double my ingredients again and to my surprise, my calculations lead me to think I shouldn't be doing so, either for this cake or for the chocolate sponge(!). A 20x12cm rectangular tin yields a surface area of 240 sq cm while a 20cm round tin yields a surface area of approximately 314 sq cm. The percentage increase would thus be approximately 31%, which means I should be increasing my ingredients by only a third instead of doubling the amount. The question I have is, which should I follow or am I missing something here? Many thanks in advance!

Hi KT, wonderful recipe!I just wonder if these PET could be kept in freezer (not refrigerator) and reheated for later consumption, maybe for a month later?Would they still as good as the fresh ones? How long they could be kept in freezer without losing significant quality (weeks or months?)How to do it correctly? Should I wrap them with something in the freezer, and how to reheat them properly?Thanks a lot.

Hi KTThanks for the recipe! I baked them today and they tasted great! but had leftovers. May I know why they need to be refrigerated uncovered instead of covered? Can they be kept in air tight container in room temperature overnight?Thanks for replyingLynn

Hi KT, my pandan kaya cannot set at all even though increase agar-agar powder. May i know what is the problem? Is it the agar-agar powder need to totally dissolve before add in the sugar, butter, pandan juice and salt?

Question. If not mentioned, does it matter what temperature other ingredients are?Like is it better to have colder eggs straight from the fridge or to have them sit out a bit so they're at room temperature?

Hi KT, i tried the recipe above. Only changes is that i only had a 5x8inch rectangular one-piece tin, so i used that. And so I did not do the step (as shown in video) about adding the foil-wrapped cardboard boards and the larger exterior tin while baking. Im not sure if missing this step was the reason, but my cake came out with a "depression" on the bottom, after cooling upside down in the tin on a cooling rack. I think somehow the weight of the cake pulled the center downwards during cooling process. What did i do wrongly, can u advise?

That said, it was one of my most springy and light chiffon cakes, and my first baking a chiffon in a non-tube pan! Lovely!

Hello KT! This is my first time trying a castella cake. Actually I was /too/ excited and didn't go out to buy bread flour (I used all-purpose sadly). It turned out great and very similar to how yours looked! Next time I'll definitely use bread flour. (And your video was a great help. Like how if you add too much yolk at once it'll deflate the meringue)

Wow, I'm all for sharing recipes and you have your own opinion - but whats with the verbal bashing of Rasa Malaysia??! Yes there are some flaws with that recipe, but I dont really see what that has to do with your post or your recipe. This whole blog post is pretty much based on how terrible her recipe is, and everything she did wrong and how yours are FAR superior. Why not be more productive and constructive?!

I have no idea what is Hun Kwee Flour. I live in North America, I am afraid we do not carry the same brand...etc. Is there a generic name that I could try to search here pls?I understand you are sometimes frustrated with all these questions. ....

Hi there ^^Thanks a lot for this amazing recipe! Castella is one of my favourite cakes..I am usually not very lucky when baking and I must say this got almost perfect at the first attempt.I did do some changes because I do not use sugar so I put xylitol instead (that's what I had around :/) and also I don't drink milk so I didn't have any.. I thought about replacing it with rice milk but then I forgot to add it..Other than that followed your recipe to the letter..Now I don't know if it was because of the different ingredients (probably :) or the fact that the oven I had available is quite small.. But the consistency is not exactly how it should be.. Moist and sticky.. It rather came out a little bit dryer (maybe that's because I'm Portuguese and so it came out more like its ancestor heheh ) anyway.. Other than that its great!Thanks a lot once again ;)

Failed badly on my first attempt, did not realise my oven temperature was too high. At 240C the top of the egg tarts were burnt after only ten minutes in the oven, but I carried on baking to experiment on how the cooked custard would taste like. Found it too sweet, lacking the egg taste and the milk was overpowering, so in my second attempt, i adjusted the qty of everything except the cream to match my preference and baked it at 200. Had to shift the tray to the lower rack half way through to avoid over browning the tarts. Second attempt was a success so thank you KT for the wonderful recipe and video demonstration.

This is my Pandan Kaya Cake from your recipe *show off*. :) I've followed every steps and ingredients needed, except that I've substitute agar agar powder with gelatine and used less pandan leaves as what was called for in your recipe.

It turns out so well - the texture, colour. Sweetness is just right too. Just that the pandan flavour are too mild. I've sprinkled some desiccated coconut on top. Love this recipe.

Any moist cupcake recipe to share? Or can i use this cake recipe for cupcakes?

Hun Kwee flour is actually Mung Bean starch. Do not get confused over Mung Bean flour (meal from whole mung beans) and Mung Bean starch. This recipe calls for Mung Bean starch.The ones imported from Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia are normally packed in a "block-form" with the words "HUN KWEE" printed on white paper packaging (as you can see in the pictures above), whilst the Thailand versions are simply packed in printed plastic bag packaging.I've not tried this recipe yet, but I know it must taste pretty good. I've tried various of KT's recipe and they all came out good!!!Thanks for sharing.

If you cannot find the egg shell tarts, all you need is a cupcake pan (or mini tart pans if you've got them) and frozen puff pastry sheets from your local supermarket. In the US, Dufour is the best quality you can buy.

Cut the dough into rounds and press into molds, then freeze.

When filling with custard, be careful to leave room at the top - it rises in the oven (therefore rising over your puff pastry, leaving you with no visible "rim")

I had great success with this recipe and plan to make it again. Thank you so much. Everyone was so impressed.

Hi Emily. As mentioned in my post above, I too ran into the same issue. Very easily solved with a cupcake pan and frozen puff pastry sheets. More detail in my post if you'd like. Good luck, it's a wonderful recipe.

Hi KT,Thank you for your comments in the Marble Butter Cake. Very encouraging to me.Here I'd like to share with you the Honey Castella Cake I made. I also added matcha powder on my second try. My girls loved them! Thank you again for sharing such wonderful recipes! :-)Cheers/Sharon

Yes, those were chocolate macarons but failed macarons. :-( I found that macarons are highly sensitive, could fail easily with a tiny mistake. I'm still working hard on it. Hope you can share your macaron recipe in your blog one day. :-)

Hi KT, sorry for my late reply! Haven't checked my account until now. I haven't had another try of macarons since my failure last time and instead, I focused my time more in baking cakes and trying different good recipes like yours. Excited to hear that you succeeded in macarons! Any luck to see the picture of it? May I share the recipe of yours?

BTW, I finally had time to enjoy baking today. I've tried your Matcha Swiss Roll! Very yummy! I will post you picture on that page! Thank you KT! :-)

Hi Sharon, thanks for the great recipe. My family and friends like this honey cake very much. However, when I tried to make double size of it in the same container? I use the same temperature of 160C for 45 min, it seems that the middle part is still uncooked. Can you advise me which part I made wrong? Thank you!

I love your videos. I've tried two recipes of yours and it all turned out great and yummy. I do agree that if u don't follow it to a tee, the cake is not going to "jadi". Sometimes u do get people who claim they've followed the recipe to a tee but the cake still failed and to only later on admit they did make some changes like the flour or pan size. Ignorance is bliss but not when it comes to baking. Keep up the good work and thanks for your efforts in sharing and helping us all out there be better bakers!